Forssell - 'fans must keep believing'

Mikael Forssell offered sympathy for the Birmingham City supporters who jeered the team off the pitch on Saturday but the striker, who scored in the 1-1 draw against West Bromwich Albion, is sure the season will end happily.

Mikael Forssell offered sympathy for the Birmingham City supporters who jeered the team off the pitch on Saturday but the striker, who scored in the 1-1 draw against West Bromwich Albion, is sure the season will end happily.

Birmingham were largely outplayed in an exciting match at St Andrew's and only missed chances, most notably by Diomansy Kamara, denied Albion what would have been a deserved victory.

The home fans were unimpressed and greeted the final whistle with a chorus of boos.

"I understand it," Forssell said. "It's been a long, hard season and all the players, everyone in the stadium and in the city has been looking for Birmingham to go forward and improve on the past few seasons which has been excellent and now we haven't been playing that well.

"I understand the fans but all I would say is 'keep believing' because we, the players, do believe."

Birmingham remain in the bottom three - they have been there since October - and missed the chance to close the gap on Albion, who occupy 17th position. Worse still, Portsmouth defeated Manchester City and are breathing down Birmingham's neck.

Forssell scored from a penalty early in the second half to give Birmingham the lead but Nathan Ellington equalised for Albion, giving the visitors a spur to dominate the latter stages. Better finishing would have given Albion a significant victory.

Forssell's composure for the penalty was not a reflection of how Birmingham played.

Indeed, the penalty was a contentious decision - Bryan Robson, the Albion manager, for one did not think that Curtis Davies fouled Forssell - and was just the kind of luck that Birmingham needed.

"I didn't feel nervous taking the penalty," Forssell said. "I have taken many penalties in my career. It wasn't a problem. I knew I was going to score but I am disappointed we didn't win. I got to the ball first and put my body in front of him [Davies] and I thought he came onto me too strong. That's where he made his mistake.

"But the first 70 minutes were OK for us. We were better, but in the end they had some chances. We got a little bit lucky. At least we got a point and there are still ten games to go.

"Our defending as a team has not been the best this season in every way. We have to improve on that. When we go forward it hasn't been the best but it's been the same defensively.

"Both ways we have to improve a lot but we've had some signs after Christmas. It's been better but we are still not there. We still have to work. With ten games we go, we have to give it our all.

"For the first 70 minutes, even though they had the chances in the first half, I thought we were better. We got the goal and should have kept going forward. With their goal, we didn't defend the best way we could have and then towards the end they scored have scored but 1-1 is a fair result.

"We have a game in hand we are still in the FA Cup which I believe helps us a lot. We can work on our game without the massive pressure. It's a great game against Liverpool coming up [on March 21] and I believe the FA Cup will help us with the Premier League as well."